


the promise of hope

by vampiriic



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, For the most part, some dialogue/events are different, spoilers for the timeskip in the blue lions route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 10:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20208175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampiriic/pseuds/vampiriic
Summary: Garreg Mach should be celebrating its millennium festival. There should be people and dancing and music. Instead, the grounds lay silent, abandoned by all.Save for one.





	the promise of hope

**Author's Note:**

> please note this does contain spoilers for the blue lions route timeskip. while some events and dialogue have been changed to fit the story, it is mostly canon compliant.

It’s been five long years since the fall of Garreg Mach. Even through the voices in his head, he thinks that it should be celebrating the millennium festival. There should be the sounds of people laughing, children running across the grounds, the sweet smells of baked treats wafting through the air. It should be a time of great joy, celebrating the church and the land of Fódlan.

Instead, the monastery is quiet. The war has not been kind to it, with sections cracked and falling apart and others completely in ruin. But that’s what war does, he thinks bitterly. It takes and takes and takes. His mind is crowded with the voices of those he has lost. Those whose lives he, himself, has taken. 

Areadbhar drips blood onto the stone as he ascends the steps into the monastery. Behind him lays a trail of broken and mangled bodies of Imperial soldiers who foolishly sought to challenge him. _ Not enough_, voices whisper into his ear. _ Not enough. _ He knows. It will not be enough until he has her head. Until she has paid for her crimes against Fódlan, against him. But he fears that even then, the ghosts in his head will not quiet. 

Dimitri sinks down onto the cold stone floor of Garreg Mach and waits.

-

She does not have a heartbeat, yet her heart feels stuck in her throat as she passes fractured villages and broken people. Five years is a long time to be gone. Though the details from before the fall are faint, she remembers enough to know that the outcome is not surprising. And that, she thinks, is probably the most tragic thought of them all.

Tales of a rabid beast plaguing the land had reached her, even shortly after she woke up. At first, she had hardly believed the kind villager who had found her. It couldn’t have been five years. It was a shock in itself that she was still alive. But something deep inside her told her it was more than a miracle, more than anything beyond mortal comprehension. 

The villagers had warned her then, of something that lurked in the dark ripping apart Imperial soldiers. They called it a monster, something inhuman. She knew better than that. They had told her she could stay, but she had refused. “It’s been abandoned for years,” they said when she spoke of the monastery. “Thieves are the only ones that dare go there now.”

“I made a promise a long time ago,” she replied simply, and she had left. The Sword of the Creator hung at her hip, its weight a comforting familiarity in an unfamiliar land.

That was days ago. Now, the monastery looms above her. It is as imposing as it always was, rising above the surrounding land. But without the people, the light of life within, it’s only a husk of its former self. Something aches in her chest as she takes it all in.

Imperial bodies and split weapons litter the grounds and even the steps of Garreg Mach. There is no doubt in her mind of who the stories were about, and she can only hope she is not too late. The dead hardly bother her anymore as she passes. Being a mercenary had granted her that. But it is not herself she is worried about. It is not her that carries the burden of the fallen. 

Her heels click against the stone floor, echoing in the empty hallways. She finds him, sitting against one of the walls, holding his lance that is brown with dried blood. His pose reminds her greatly of a predator lying in wait for its prey.

He looks up when she stops in front of him. He has changed much from when she last saw him, physical appearance aside. “At last, you’re here to haunt me too,” he rasps. “I was wondering when that day would come.”

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting then,” she says. His eye widens ever so slightly; it is clear that is not what he expected her to say. “I’m not here to ask for vengeance.” She holds her hand out to him just as the light of dawn reaches into the monastery.

A bitter laugh escapes him. “It’s really you, isn’t it?” Slowly he rises to his feet. Even hunched over, as if the weight of the world rests upon his shoulders, he is much taller than she remembers. “Why are you here?” he asks. ‘_Now’ _hangs in the air between them, unspoken but not unheard.

“We made a promise to return here, did we not?” she replies evenly. He starts walking through the halls, shadows retreating as the sun continues to rise. She hurries to keep up with his strides. 

“I suppose we did.” 

He remembers, then. She hopes it means he’s not completely gone. But seeing him like this now makes her wish the last five years had gone differently. That day five years ago, she could have, should have, tried to turn back time. Why she hadn’t, she doesn’t know. All she really remembers is the fall. 

War leaves little time for regrets, and it’s far too late for them anyway. Now, she can only hope to pick up the pieces she left behind. But there are many and she is only a single person. She knows in her unbeating heart she is not enough, but for Dimitri’s sake she prays she is. She has to be. “Where are we going?” she asks finally, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

He twirls Areadbhar in his hands, a savage grin crossing his face. “Can’t you smell them? Rats are everywhere now, crawling over the monastery like the vermin they are.” This is not the Dimitri she once knew. Then again, she knew that as soon as she had heard the stories. Yet his voice, the hunger in his eye, is enough to send a chill down her spine.

He leads her through the monastery, past rooms and hallways she remembers vividly. They’re heading towards the grounds when she becomes aware of another set of footsteps. Heavy boots thud against stone, and the Sword of the Creator is in her hand hardly a second later. Dimitri hears it too, turning, pointing Areadbhar at the chest of the figure behind them.

But illuminated in the growing light is a face she recognizes instantly. The last five years have not been kind to many, but perhaps they were softer on him. “Gilbert?” 

“Professor,” he greets, though he looks just as surprised to see her as she does him. “You’re alive. And you found His Highness first, I see.”

Dimitri lowers his lance. “How did you know I was here?” he asks. 

“I’ve been following your movements for a while,” Gilbert says, stepping closer. “At first it was just a hope, but the more I heard the more I knew it was you.”

She isn’t the only one who figured out the identity of the so-called beast. As she returns her sword to her hip, she wonders who else has their own suspicions. “It’s good to see another friendly face,” she says. The sincerity in her voice startles herself. 

He gives her a small smile. “There are many theories on His Highness’s fate, but we all thought you had perished in the battle five years ago. It’s nice to be proved wrong.” There’s a small flutter in her chest at his words. Ever since waking up, she had been so focused on finding Dimitri she hardly had the time to think about anyone else. Others she had left behind. She wonders if they, too, remember their promise.

The answer comes sooner than she expects. With Gilbert pledging himself to Dimitri once more, the three are quick to find the thieves plaguing the monastery grounds. They’re pursuing the pack of bandits when more figures appear at the edges of the battlefield.

At first, she thinks it’s more thieves. But they come closer and she has never been so happy to be wrong. Five years has changed them all, but she could never forget her former students. With everyone’s help, it’s a quick battle. Part of her wishes it never had to come to this, but it’s another grim reality she has to face upon reentering the land of the living.

It’s hardly the reunion they had all been expecting five years ago, but she is happy to see them all alive. Having thought her long gone, the former members of the Blue Lion house crowd around her, rejoicing in the return of their beloved teacher. Even Felix, ever distant as always, grudgingly admits it’s nice to have her back.

Dimitri stands away from the group, quietly conversing with Gilbert. She catches him staring, once, and wonders if she’s imagining the look of longing on his face. It’s gone before the thought completes itself in her mind. 

On the battlefield, it was easy to think he was too far gone. Wielding Areadbhar and slaying all who dared to stand in his path, she had thought he was. But that tiny look reignites hope in her heart that he could still be saved. And as she looks around her, at her students who had not forgotten their promise, she knows she will not be alone. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to [jennie](https://potatoavenger.tumblr.com/) and triangel on discord for looking this over for me!
> 
> i love my sad husband. i finished the blue lions route a week or so ago, and haven't been the same since.
> 
> you can find me on tumblr [here](https://vampiricarus.tumblr.com/).


End file.
